Various approaches have been used to mount electrical connectors to panels to extend through a panel cutout such that a mating face is exposed on one side of the panel and the connector extends to another face on the opposite side of the panel, and circuits are completed from one panel side to the other. One technique is to secure the connector to the panel by fasteners that extend through aligned holes of the panel and flanges extending laterally from the sides of the connector and lying adjacent the panel. Another technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,995,947 and 5,002,497 in which the connector is secured to the panel without the use of discrete fasteners, using features of the connector housing or shell to cooperate with the panel.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,077,693; 4,352,538 and 5,407,363, connectors include flanges in a first layer that pass through recesses along the cutout periphery until moved past the far panel surface whereupon second flanges or bosses of the housing laterally and axially staggered from the flanges of the first layer abut the near panel surface. The connector is then translated or rotated laterally to a mounted position so that the first flanges are no longer aligned with the recesses through which they past, and the connector is locked in the mounted position such as by a separate key member, or a latch arm integral with the housing cooperating with a panel feature. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,363, limited float is available to the connector within the cutout for the connector to adjust its position incrementally during connector mating.
It is desired to provide a connector that selfretains to a panel at a cutout thereof, in a manner that permits floating incrementally in at least two dimensions upon mating with a mating connector along the mating face.
It is further desired to provide such a connector that is permitted to float incrementally in three dimensions.